Dancing was an early love for me. I studied ballet, then tap and jazz, even baton twirling. For many years I made my living performing, teaching dance and choreographing. Then I ‘went corporate’ and mostly stopped dancing. Happily, in the last few years I have started moving again and especially love NIA classes. The movement is so free and expansive.
Imagine my disappointment then when I arrived at class this morning and a tiny woman walked in and announced she was our sub and we would not be doing NIA. Instead she would offer us a kind of ‘ballet barre’. Yuck. Ballet is tight, disciplined, serious. I almost left immediately as did two other women. But, dag nabbitt, I needed to work out and I reeeeelly hate the elliptical machine.
Sure enough, we did plies, tendues and other tight, controlled things. Every few minutes I thought about leaving. I haven’t done ballet in 20 years and I haven’t missed it. Hold yourself erect. Extend your arms. There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to do ballet.
Still, I stayed with it and my muscle memory responded. I used to love ballet. Performing those classic movements was nostalgic. Persisting with the class reminded me of the value of pushing through to greater skill. I was also reminded that sometimes we’re served exactly what is needed in the moment. I’ve been feeling a little untethered and the structure of the ballet steps had a grounding effect.
The discipline and structure is exactly what I need right now. To read more about the mind-body connection and how to use it for breakthrough performance, read this.
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